Wednesday, July 19, 2006

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AFP): India has agreed to dispatch experts in flood forecasting and disaster management to Guyana, where unprecedented severe flooding within the last two years has killed more than 40 people and caused millions of dollars of damage, a senior Indian official said.

Secretary of India's Ministry of External Affairs, Shashi Tripathi, said the experts would be heading out soon to Guyana, where half the population of 750,000 are descendants of indentured labourers from India.

"Since both countries face environmental challenges, challenges of natural disasters sometimes, we also need to look at ways to deal with these challenges, some of these ways we have developed back home in India, some you may have developed so this is where we can interact also," she said.

Tripathi made the announcement a day after holding talks with senior officials of Guyana's Foreign Ministry, as part of Foreign Office consultations between the two countries.

Over the past two years, unusually heavy rainfall combined with a dilapidated drainage system caused severe flooding in some villages and farming communities along the low-lying Atlantic coastal area.

India has also promised to share its election management expertise with Guyana and send a law enforcement expert amid persistent violent crime by heavily armed gangs.

Guyana, a former British colony, is a 216,000 square kilometre country bordered by Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname and the Atlantic Ocean.

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